Men's Hockey Falls To UConn, 5-2

WORCESTER, Mass. - The Holy Cross men's hockey team fell to Connecticut, 5-2, in Atlantic Hockey action on Saturday night at the Hart Center in the regular season finale. With the loss, the Crusaders fall to 10-19-5 overall (9-14-5 AHA), while the Huskies improve to 15-17-2 overall (15-11-2 AHA). Holy Cross is the No. 5 seed in the Atlantic Hockey Tournament and will travel to Colorado Springs, Colo., to take on No. 4 seed Air Force on Saturday, March 10 in the quarterfinals.

The Crusaders scored the first goal of the game while on the power play at 1:19 into the first period, when senior James Sixsmith (Alexandria, Va.) scored his team-leading 17th goal of the season, when senior Sean Nappo (Northville, Mich.) sent a crossing pass in front of the goal to Sixsmith who buried the puck into the right side of the net. Junior Dale Reinhardt (Livingston, N.J.) also received an assist. The Huskies tied the game a little less than two minutes later when Alec Kirschner scored a power play goal.

UConn took a 2-1 lead at the 11:10 mark of the first period when Matt Scherer sent a pass from behind the net to Jarrett Scarpaci who was waiting in front of the goal and then buried the puck into the net. Holy Cross tied the game at the 16:22 mark when Reinhardt scored his 16th goal of the year. Sixsmith and Nappo were credited with assists.

At the 9:05 mark of the second period, UConn took a 3-2 lead when Michael Coppola sent the face off to Michael Olmstead who passed it to Chris Myhro who then fired a slap shot from in between the face off circles past Holy Cross freshman goaltender Ian Dams (Manotick, Ontario).

The game remained 3-2 until the Huskies scored two straight empty net goals at the end of the third period. Scherer scored with 59 seconds left and Trevor Stewart added the last goal with 12 seconds remaining.

Dams made 30 saves, while UConn's Beau Erickson stopped 36 shots to earn the win. The Crusaders outshot the Huskies by a 38-35 margin, while Holy Cross went 1-7 on the power play and UConn went 1-4.

With his assist Sixsmith tied current San Jose Shark Patrick Rissmiller for the Holy Cross Division I single season assists record with 30. Rissmiller set the record in the 2001-02 season.

Before the game seniors Tanner Fogarty (McMurray, Pa.), Jon Landry (Lexington, Mass.), Nappo, assistant captain Rob Godfrey (Thunder Bay, Ontario) and Sixsmith were honored for their hard work and dedication to the team on and off the field over the past four years.

College of the Holy CrossDepartment of Athletics 1 College Street Worcester, MA 01610